Derek Jeter knew it was only a matter of time before he suffered a fractured ankle, as he did in Game 1 of the 2012 AL Championship Series. / The Star-Ledger, USA TODAY Sports

by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

TAMPA - While a sporting nation was trying to absorb the concept of Michael Jordan becoming a middle-aged man Sunday, his 50th birthday, New York Yankees icon Derek Jeter was coming to grips with his athletic mortality.

Jeter, who'll turn 39 in June, knows his glorious career is nearing an end. He fights it by not talking about it, but for the first time Sunday he no longer was crusading against outside perception.

"As much as I'd like to be getting younger, I'm not," Jeter said. "Everybody's getting older. There's always going to be questions. There always have been questions. I don't mind that."

The skepticism - even cynicism - that Jeter can no longer remain great has never been so prevalent in his 17-plus-year career. It has been four months since he broke his left ankle, and Jeter, who has a plate and screws in his ankle, only began running on a treadmill last week.

The Yankees want to share Jeter's optimism he'll be ready to play by opening day, but they have no idea.

"There's always a concern about him coming back," manager Joe Girardi said, "until he comes back. I believe he'll be an everyday shortstop. I do, but you still want to see it.

"I have not been told this is a career-threatening injury. If we don't have him (at the outset), he'll be around; his presence will be felt."

The only certainty is that after leading the Yankees to five World Series titles, seven American League pennants and 16 playoff berths, the likely a Hall of Famer has never been so badly needed.

'Such an institution'

This proud franchise, which has missed the playoffs once during Jeter's career, is at a championship-level crossroad. They are predicted by Nevada oddsmakers to win fewer than 87 games for the first time in a full season since 1992.

That's what happens when you're fielding baseball's oldest team - average age: nearly 33 - including the eighth shortstop in the modern era to play at the age of 39. That doesn't include Alex Rodriguez, out until at least July with hip surgery as Major League Baseball investigates whether he received performance-enhancing drugs from a South Florida clinic.

"Derek has become such an institution," former Yankees manager Lou Piniella told USA TODAY Sports, "you don't think it's ever going to end. They've got so many questions now, they really need him. They have to have his stability and presence in that lineup and clubhouse every day.

"I don't know how they win without him."

Even at 39?

"But we're all getting older," Jeter said. "I don't think about age when I'm playing. I really don't. I just try to focus on getting ready to play, and doing as well as I can."

This is the Yankees' fear: that Jeter's best isn't good enough. What if one the game's greatest competitors is neutralized by Father Time?

"I don't believe he's going to play just to play,'' former Yankees manager Joe Torre told USA TODAY Sports Sunday night. "He's going to need to carry his end of the bargain. â?¦

"You know, that city is unlike any other city in the country. Distractions are all over the plate. He is definitely a security blanket for a lot of people there, and that franchise. I remember his first year in '96, even the veterans were looking for him to do something in August and September. He had that air about him, something special.''

It's the reason Jeter kept playing in pain last season, risking severe damage to his ankle.

Jeter was diagnosed with a bone bruise in early September. It worsened and became a stress fracture. Jeter refused to have further X-ray. He didn't want to know the severity.

"After it was originally diagnosed," Jeter said, "they told me it was a bone bruise. I'm not going to ask them again to look at it again. Just keep playing."

He played, all the way until his ankle gave way in the 12th inning of Game 1 of the American League Championship Series against the Detroit Tigers.

He crumbled to the ground, screamed in anguish and was afraid to look.

"It had already developed into a stress fracture," Jeter said Sunday. "So if didn't happen on that particular play, it would have happened eventually."

The Yankees were aware Jeter was playing in pain the final six weeks; few knew the extent of his pain.

"I know he had the bone bruise," Girardi said in his office Sunday afternoon, "and I could clearly tell the bone bruise was affecting him. But no, no, we wouldn't have kept playing him if we knew that (it was a stress fracture)."

Yankees ace CC Sabathia, one of Jeter's closest friends, said he didn't try to talk Jeter out of playing, just like he didn't say a word himself about the bone spurs in his left elbow that required surgery.

"I felt his ankle would blow anytime. He had been hurting for a while," Sabathia said. "But that's who he is, why he's the captain. It's easy for me to go out with bone spurs when his ankle is about to blow up.

"Knowing how many rings he already has and him still wanting to go out there and helping us win, that just inspires everyone."

He was laid up on a couch for nearly six weeks. He needed a scooter to get around his house.

"I don't want to make it seem more dramatic than it is," Jeter said, "but you've got to learn to walk again. In that sense, physically it was a challenge. And then mentally it's a challenge when you sit on the couch and you can't get anywhere."

Still, he said he would "do the same thing over again, if I had to."

Jeter, who has missed one opening day in his career, believes he'll be ready. He quietly believes he'll put up another stellar season. And, yes, he believes the Yankees will be right back in the postseason.

"It's not like I go out saying, 'I've got to prove something,'" Jeter said. "I just want to continue to improve. That's the approach I've always taken."

Yet, if something goes awry, if this is the year Jeter finally succumbs to age, he will be faced with the biggest decision of his career. Stay and accept the Yankees' $8 million player option in 2014. Retire. Or, dare think it, depart to another team.

"I don't think about those things," Jeter said. "I never try to think about when the end of a career comes. So I can't think about what's going to happen next year."

Still, the day will come. It might be nearing soon. It's only inevitable.

"You look at Derek, you look at Mariano (Rivera, 43)," Piniella said, "the Yankees have two dinosaurs. These guys have worn only one uniform in their lives. I can't see them wearing another one.